Major survey shows gun ownership declining

WASHINGTON - A major U.S. trend survey finds that the number of Americans who live in a household with at least one gun is lower than it's ever been. That decline is paralleled by a reduction in the number of Americans who hunt.

According to the latest General Social Survey, 32 percent of Americans either own a firearm themselves or live with someone who does, which ties a record low set in 2010. That's a significant decline since the late 1970s and early 1980s, when about half of Americans reported a gun in their household.

The drop is probably linked with a decline in the popularity of hunting, from 32 percent who lived in a household with at least one hunter in 1977 to less than half that number saying so now.